“I am vengeance!”
“I am fierce!”
“I cannot be stopped!”
Alex works his way towards his prey with slow steps. His body is alive with the power of the full moon, and his every movement is a display of deliberate action. Each month his body changed as the moon touched it giving him abilities beyond any simple mortal. On nights like this he could change shape becoming one with his animal self. This night was well suited for his crusade. He blends perfectly with his surroundings barely even moving the grass and bushes as he approaches the Appleton’s house. The darkness hides this predator. It aids his stealth with a comforting blanket of shadow. It was time for Alex’s neighbors to pay for what they did last week; the horror of it all still makes him shudder briefly.
He had watched frozen in place as the Ed Appleton had murdered the two brothers. It had been done behind the house so as to not attract attention, but no one had seen Alex there. It had been several minutes of cutting and cracking, the bastard even took the time to skin them before going back into the house! Alex stood transfixed as Ed, his wife, and his ten year old son Phil took the bodies inside. Alex couldn’t believe that even Phil was involved with this mess. Alex finally found himself able to move and crept close to the house only to discover that his neighbors, his “friendly and respectable” neighbors were about to eat the two brothers. This entire family had gone insane!
“Stay Focused! The atrocities dealt out in this house of evil must be avenged, and I am the only one powerful enough to complete this task.” Alex was getting closer to his objective and strained to notice any detail that could give him away. He moves around the rake left in the yard, pointed up like someone was preparing for a cartoon stunt to take place. He admires his dexterity as he dodges the sprinkler and just manages to keep himself from tripping on the hose. There is no noise other than the quiet crunch of the grass under his feet as he moves around the grill and up to the pack patio. His vengeance, his hate, his mighty rage cannot to sated with anything less than the grizzly revenge he had planned for this evening.
He had to be careful now; the back door loomed before him like the aluminum door to Hades itself! (As a note, Alex was not sure Hades had added a screen or even the polished brass trimmings like this door had.) This is where the waiting game began. His revenge would begin with the first family member to exit the back door. The crickets kept up their chorus with the nearby frogs adding a deep base, fitting sounds for the symphony of destruction that Alex was about to unleash. An hour passes, then two, “what is taking so long!” Then he felt it; that shudder in the foundation of a house that you feel after you hit the doorbell telling you of the approach of another. The dead bolt clicks and the handle turns. Alex readies himself no mortal can handle the fierce attack he is about unleash! The door swings open and Phil steps out into the darkness with the waiting monster and freezes. Alex attacks with all his speed and strength hoping to make the first kill a quiet one, but his hopes of stealth are dashed as Phil calls out.
“Dad there is a turtle at the back door,” Phil yells.
Ed’s voice carries from the living room, “what do you mean?”
“I mean a turtle, Dad. It’s moving right at me waving its arms and stuff. It doesn’t look like one of the snapping turtles we made into soup last week though.”
“Well put it back out by the pond then,” came the reply.
“Can I keep it? I have that old cage from the snake we had”
“I don’t care as long as you take care of it.”
“Sweet!” and just like that Phil defeated Alex; the world’s only wereturtle by picking him up and walking away with him. Revenge for the turtle soup will have to wait till the next full moon.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Castle
Will and Jason had been watching the house for two whole days now and there had not been a single sign of life the entire time. The mail was piled up in the mailbox, newspapers soaking up the rain at the front door. They had seen lights come on inside, but after the second day they had realized that the lights were on a timer; not turned on by someone in the house. There were no dogs, no signs of a security system, no random company, no police, and most importantly, not a single neighbor anywhere near this place.
Will grabbed the bag with the crowbar, bump key and the other tools while Jason grabbed two large backpacks. Jason shot the only street light out with a pellet gun they had picked up on their last job. They crossed the street and went up the driveway at a fast walk, pausing at the shadows by the front door. It took less than ten seconds for Will to get the door open with the bump key and the two figures moved inside the entrance, politely locking the door behind them.
They paused for a moment to take in their surroundings and were stunned by what they saw. This place is amazing. The entryway opens up into a huge living room that boasted several large pieces of art, antique-looking furnishings, a huge and not so antique plasma TV and sound system built into the walls. There was a fish tank built into the wall leading towards the dining area that must have held over 500 gallons of water!
Will went right to work on the sound system and began pulling the components out of the wall as Jason moved deeper into the house. Room after room was like the first: sculptures and photos and art. One room was full of sports collectibles. Jason’s trained eye knew what they could sell for money and what would be too much of a pain to unload no matter what it was worth. Everything that could be carried easily he packed into a bag with quiet efficiency. The first bag full, he turned to go and stack it in the living room when he heard a startled cry from Will. He immediately dropped the bag and sprinted to the front of the house, pulling out his 9mm pistol.
What he saw when he arrives is terrifying! Will is crumpled up on the floor, already lifeless. Blood still pouring out of the huge gash in his neck but it had already stopped being pushed by a beating heart. Jason scans the room looking for who had done this to his partner, but sees no one. He moves closer to the body to get a better look at what had happened and is stunned to see that Will looked like someone had tried to take his head off with an axe.
Jason’s head whips up as he hears the sound of metal on metal back down the hall that he had just run up. He snaps the gun up in that direction and waits as his body jolts into high gear from the rush of adrenalin. All is quiet for several minutes, allowing him to finally decide that he is going to kill this guy for what he did to Will. He slips through the house in search of his hidden opponent, years of experience keeping his steps from making any noise without him even having to think about it. Suddenly he hears the metal noise again, this time from somewhere behind the last door in the hall.
How foolishly typical, he thought. He kicked the door open bringing the gun up to chest height as he did, but there is no one there, just well-lit stairs leading down to what looked like a large basement. He moves quickly down the stairs and is met by the strangest sight. There are all kinds of swords, knives, and guns on the walls encased in glass display cases. There are close to twenty suits of armor standing patiently on their pedestals like long forgotten sentinels of some ancient crypt. He stood there stunned for a moment at the sight, and in that moment everything went sideways.
All but a few of the lights suddenly blink off. That same sound of metal that he had heard before, the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath, came from just a few steps behind him. He spins, trying to bring his gun around in time, but is greeted by the completely bizarre sight of a man dressed head to toe in medieval armor thrusting a sword at his chest. His mind freezes for a fraction of a second trying to come up with an explanation for what it is seeing, and it is that fraction of a second that cost him everything. The sword, meant to battle armored opponents, slides easily into his chest and out his back. Jason’s arms went limp and he hears the gun fall to the ground, as he stands staring into the eyes of a crazed man in armor.
This is way too strange, he thinks as the man pulled the sword out of his chest and disappeared into the shadows.
Jason knew he was out of time as he slumped over on his side. The whole night had been one big mistake ending with, well, soon to be two people dead. At least Will died fast, lucky bastard; he looked down at the blood pumping out of his chest where the sword had run him through, this hurts more than you would think. As his vision started to get cloudy he rolled his head to the left for one last look around the museum like room. In the quiet darkness, Jason’s choking laugh was startlingly loud; the irony of what he was looking at was not wasted on him. He spent his last seconds in this world looking at a perfect replica of some European castle….a damn castle! It had been painstakingly built piece by piece complete with a bridge, tiny figures of men on horseback, and even little cloth flags at the tops of the towers. Jason’s last chuckle turned into that long sigh of the dead as the armor clad figure stepped back into the light and heard the doomed man whisper his last words, “a man’s home.”
Will grabbed the bag with the crowbar, bump key and the other tools while Jason grabbed two large backpacks. Jason shot the only street light out with a pellet gun they had picked up on their last job. They crossed the street and went up the driveway at a fast walk, pausing at the shadows by the front door. It took less than ten seconds for Will to get the door open with the bump key and the two figures moved inside the entrance, politely locking the door behind them.
They paused for a moment to take in their surroundings and were stunned by what they saw. This place is amazing. The entryway opens up into a huge living room that boasted several large pieces of art, antique-looking furnishings, a huge and not so antique plasma TV and sound system built into the walls. There was a fish tank built into the wall leading towards the dining area that must have held over 500 gallons of water!
Will went right to work on the sound system and began pulling the components out of the wall as Jason moved deeper into the house. Room after room was like the first: sculptures and photos and art. One room was full of sports collectibles. Jason’s trained eye knew what they could sell for money and what would be too much of a pain to unload no matter what it was worth. Everything that could be carried easily he packed into a bag with quiet efficiency. The first bag full, he turned to go and stack it in the living room when he heard a startled cry from Will. He immediately dropped the bag and sprinted to the front of the house, pulling out his 9mm pistol.
What he saw when he arrives is terrifying! Will is crumpled up on the floor, already lifeless. Blood still pouring out of the huge gash in his neck but it had already stopped being pushed by a beating heart. Jason scans the room looking for who had done this to his partner, but sees no one. He moves closer to the body to get a better look at what had happened and is stunned to see that Will looked like someone had tried to take his head off with an axe.
Jason’s head whips up as he hears the sound of metal on metal back down the hall that he had just run up. He snaps the gun up in that direction and waits as his body jolts into high gear from the rush of adrenalin. All is quiet for several minutes, allowing him to finally decide that he is going to kill this guy for what he did to Will. He slips through the house in search of his hidden opponent, years of experience keeping his steps from making any noise without him even having to think about it. Suddenly he hears the metal noise again, this time from somewhere behind the last door in the hall.
How foolishly typical, he thought. He kicked the door open bringing the gun up to chest height as he did, but there is no one there, just well-lit stairs leading down to what looked like a large basement. He moves quickly down the stairs and is met by the strangest sight. There are all kinds of swords, knives, and guns on the walls encased in glass display cases. There are close to twenty suits of armor standing patiently on their pedestals like long forgotten sentinels of some ancient crypt. He stood there stunned for a moment at the sight, and in that moment everything went sideways.
All but a few of the lights suddenly blink off. That same sound of metal that he had heard before, the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath, came from just a few steps behind him. He spins, trying to bring his gun around in time, but is greeted by the completely bizarre sight of a man dressed head to toe in medieval armor thrusting a sword at his chest. His mind freezes for a fraction of a second trying to come up with an explanation for what it is seeing, and it is that fraction of a second that cost him everything. The sword, meant to battle armored opponents, slides easily into his chest and out his back. Jason’s arms went limp and he hears the gun fall to the ground, as he stands staring into the eyes of a crazed man in armor.
This is way too strange, he thinks as the man pulled the sword out of his chest and disappeared into the shadows.
Jason knew he was out of time as he slumped over on his side. The whole night had been one big mistake ending with, well, soon to be two people dead. At least Will died fast, lucky bastard; he looked down at the blood pumping out of his chest where the sword had run him through, this hurts more than you would think. As his vision started to get cloudy he rolled his head to the left for one last look around the museum like room. In the quiet darkness, Jason’s choking laugh was startlingly loud; the irony of what he was looking at was not wasted on him. He spent his last seconds in this world looking at a perfect replica of some European castle….a damn castle! It had been painstakingly built piece by piece complete with a bridge, tiny figures of men on horseback, and even little cloth flags at the tops of the towers. Jason’s last chuckle turned into that long sigh of the dead as the armor clad figure stepped back into the light and heard the doomed man whisper his last words, “a man’s home.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
